Saving animals, one farm at a time.
So, yeah, in my view it's pretty much completely unnecessary for anybody to eat any form of animal life above caecilians. But I recognise that husbandry and agriculture are based around things that you can do with various animals--about thirteen different major types, to be specific. These species are so specially bred that they are now incapable of surviving in the wild, and we don't want to drive them to extinction because we're not eating enough of them. So here are my findings in the field of Things That You Can Do With Farm Animals Other Than Kill And Eat And/Or Wear Them.
- Cattle. The most prevalent type of livestock worldwide is also among the most versatile. Besides the obvious fact that cows can be milked and in most cases are specifically bred to like it, you can also use them as beasts of burden or for fertiliser. Once it dies you can make five or six coats out of it, and I have it on good authority that my dress shoes did, in fact, die from old age, since they're from Uttar Pradesh and everybody and their mother knows how Hindus are about cattle (plus they came with a little certificate saying as much). Since you're probably going to want to castrate the bulls, you can also get prairie oysters, but with that you run the risk of completely overshooting killing for meat and ending up running some weird, Hellish organ farm. And you don't want that.
- Sheep. Another very versatile animal, mostly because of the many things that you can do with its wool. The lanolin in wool makes a very good base for soap. The wool itself can, of course, be made into fabric. And after all, sheep like being fleeced. Just ask a New Jersey politician.
- Chickens. Eggs. And this one is easy.
- Turkeys. More eggs. I think you can use the feathers for something, too.
- Swine. I had a little trouble with this one, because in a lot of cases there's not much that you can do with pigs other than eat them. But I was reading the Old Farmer's Almanac this morning and it says that the ancient Chinese and Romans (the latter were vegetarians up until the reign of Augustus) used pigs for...er...recycling purposes. Well, composting, technically... Plus pigs are the sweetest animals on God's green Earth and according to Winston Churchill make even better pets than cats or dogs.
- Goats. I hate goat's milk and everything made from it. But some people like it. You can also get wool from them.
- Camels. Pack animals. I wasn't even aware that these were used for meat at all until to-day.
- Horses. Pack animals and mounts. Again, I'm a little disturbed that people eat horse meat on a large scale in the first place.
- Donkeys. Pack animals. Pack animals. Pack animals. Stop eating these weird animals, you sick freaks!
- Alpacas. Wool is all they're used for anyway, so yeah...
- Llamas. Wool and dairy.
- Yaks. Yak milk is pinkish and smells funny, but it doesn't taste bad. They also make great pack animals and the Dalai Lama says that they're the thing he misses most about Tibet.
- Water buffaloes. I think you can ride them and I assume they can be used as pack animals. Some mozzarella is also made from water buffalo milk.